Bastille Day could also be known as the restaurant tribute day- a true foodie celebration! Restaurants in simpler forms have been around for ages, but restaurants as we know them now partially exist due to the French Revolution. When the monarchy was forced out, so were their chefs, or catering guilds, which led to several chefs setting up restaurants all over Paris. The word “restaurant” comes from the French word restaurer- or to restore, referring to a place where one goes to regain health. Therefore it only makes sense that Bastille Day in Paris brings people out into the streets to visit boulangeries, cafes, bistros and street vendors to celebrate French Revolution.

If you are not storming the streets in your town searching for French restaurants, crepe stands or beignet street vendors, you can celebrate the food of France at home with a couple French-inspired recipes from Foodista.

Bon Appetit!

or

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Categories:	French	1 Comment
Tags:	Bastille Day • Beignets • crepes • France • French

I love meringue. I love the way it floats, then melts in your mouth like a cloud. I’m embarrassed to admit how much of it I can eat in one sitting. Years ago, while vacationing in Paris, I surprised even myself. Poor Barnaby got a stomach bug and was hotel-bound, so I went out in search of something to soothe the belly: yogurt and medicine for him; wine, cheese, and meringue for me. I took the loot back to our shoebox-sized room and hoped that, by some miracle, he would be cured and ready to enjoy the feast. Not a chance. Along with my stinky cheese, I was banned to the tiny fire escape to snack. While Barnaby hugged the toilet, I noshed shamelessly on my cheese and wine.

Then came the meringue.

I pulled out the near-dinner-plate-sized beauty and even Barnaby in his deathly state exclaimed, “Holy crap, that thing is huge!”

Indeed. I took two hands to hold the fluffy white mound of glorious almond-studded meringue – the largest I’d ever seen. I had seen piles of them in the bakery window and am sure the baker didn’t appreciate my drooling all over the outside of his window. I refrained myself and bought only one.

Then ate the entire thing.

Last week my friend, without knowing about my meringue madness, made a stunning pavlova for dessert (she went to culinary school in Paris back in the day). I squealed when I saw it. It was a masterpiece. She formed the meringue into a bowl, into which she spread a lemon curd, anchored it with dark chocolate, then topped it with fresh blue- and blackberries.

Mon dieu!!

“Oh no, I couldn’t eat a piece that size!” I exclaimed as she placed an enormous slice on my plate.

“Oh yes she can!” Barnaby countered.

And I did.

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Categories:	Baked Goods • desserts	3 Comments
Tags:	Dessert • France • lemon curd • meringue • Paris • pavlova

You know you have a good book in your hand when time simply evaporates – poof! two hours gone just like that. This is what happened when I boarded my flight from San Francisco to Seattle and cracked the spine of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. If you’re interested in food, and I’m assuming you are since you’re reading a food blog, then this gem will keep you spellbound and salivating in no time flat. It’s the perfect balance of cuisine, biography and history.

If you are unfamiliar with Alice Waters and her famous restaurant Chez Panisse please allow me the honor of an introduction. Alice Waters was a young woman with a passion for food, an unwavering vision, determination and virtually no restaurant experience when she opened the doors to her Berkeley, California restaurant in the early 70’s. What set her apart from other restaurateurs during that early era was her obsessive devotion to quality local and organic ingredients; something she experienced during her months as a student in France, but relatively unheard of stateside. This revolutionary approach to artisanal cooking resulted in the birth of California Cuisine.

I won’t give any more away, you should indulge in it yourself. But I tell you this, if you are a food lover you will gobble this book up.

Enjoy the feast

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Categories:	Cookbooks • French • Restaurants	Leave a Comment
Tags:	alice waters • books • california cuisine • Chef • chez panisse • cooking • Food • foodista • France

I recently had the opportunity to interview Craig Boreth, author of The Hemingway Cookbook. Here’s a bit of our discussion…

When I first traveled to France and Spain about ten years ago, I thought following a Hemingway itinerary — from his Paris haunts, through San Sebastian and Pamplona and down to Madrid — would be a great way to really dig into the terrain. Of course, while doing so I found myself bar- and restaurant-hopping all day and night, and I began to realize that Hemingway wrote often (and, in my opinion, brilliantly) about food, and the idea of a cookbook began to take shape.

The greatest character I met was definitely Forrest “Duke” MacMullen, a hunting buddy of Hemingway’s from the Idaho days who provided the recipe for Cornish Pasties. He loved talking about those old days, and his letters always smelled of pipe smoke.

Of all the people I spoke with, I only had one bad experience. I called a rather famous photographer to inquire about buying the rights to use a photo of Hemingway. I don’t know if he was off his meds that day, but when I told him that $10,000 was way beyond my budget, he told me to “stop playing games and call back with a real offer,” and he hung up on me.

My favorite is the lime ice with gin and crème de menthe. Having visited Hemingway’s home in Cuba in summertime, I can imagine how this refreshing dessert could cut through the sweltering heat. It’s really easy to make, it’s got a great fresh lime tartness and a nice kick of booze.

Craig gracefully gave us permission to share this recipe with you here…

I’ve prepared most of them myself, but I enlisted many friends to help test them all.

That’s one of the things that makes the book so interesting. It’s a (hopefully) very accurate representation of Hemingway’s culinary biography. He had a huge personality and an appetite to match, and the recipes in the book reflect them.

I was surprised to learn how sophisticated Hemingway was in his use of food within his stories. I assumed it would all be boozing and gluttony. As an artist, he didn’t just use food symbolically in his writing, but he also brought in his expertise to make sure that the foods were local, in season, and perfectly-suited to the character in that particular time and place. It’s a deliberate and painstaking process that adds depth and richness to what is often mistaken for being sparse prose.

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Check out Craig’s other fun books:

How to Feel Manly in a Minivan

How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt: The Perfect Husband Handbook

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Categories:	Interview • Travel	3 Comments
Tags:	Author • Cuba • Ernest Hemingway • France • Hemingway Cookbook • Literature • Papa • Spain

Continuing the bubbly talk….this morning’s Wall Street Journal has a great article on the Champagne industry in France. Focused on the strategy of LVMH, I highly recommend the article to anyone who enjoys Moët, Veuve, or Dom … all owned by the same house.

If you are like me, you may have assumed that the grape farmers of the region must be rather well off, given the average price of their product and limited supply of source material. As the article points out, the truth is very diferent for many of Champagne’s growers:

René Dessaint says he wouldn’t have been able to survive on income from his vineyard alone. A retired teacher and current mayor of the small town of Pargny-lès-Reims, Mr. Dessaint uses the $17,500 a year he gets from selling grapes to champagne houses as a way to round out retirement benefits. At 62, Mr. Dessaint has increasingly needed outside help for field tasks such as fertilization.

Filled with facts, figures and graphs; this story contains a lot of interesting info on the past, present and future of tiny bubbles.

Champagne Tarlant is one of the better Champagne related blogs I’ve found. I haven’t tasted Tarlant Champagne, but will be looking to get some.

Marisa D’Vari has an interesting blog post in which she talks about the curious practice of Decanting Champagne.

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Categories:	Beverages	3 Comments
Tags:	champagne • Dom Pérignon • France • LVMH • Moët & Chandon • Veuve Clicquot